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Anastasia's Collectibles & CGC
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50 posts in this topic

Looking for some advice from the board on handling a CGC related situation. I sent a low grade tales of suspense 39 to Anastasia collectibles in mid February to be signed by Stan Lee and graded as a Signature Series comic by CGC; my understanding was they were an authorized dealer. My comic seems to be lost or something. Here's the timeline of what happened:

 

2/15 - Sent in Comic

2/26 - Anastasia Collectibles acknowledge receiving the comic

4/1 - Was told my book was signed and provided payment info

4/14 - Was told my book would be returned in 6-8 weeks, this was surprising because the fee's were $275 and I thought that would be a faster service level...

6/30 - Sent a message and got no response

7/11 - Sent another message and was told my comic would be returned in another 6 weeks

8/28 - Sent a message and was told it would arrive in 1 more week

9/12 - Sent a message requesting a tracking number - no response

9/18 - Sent another message asking for tracking number, was told they were out of town and would provide tracking number on 9/20

9/24 - Sent a message - no response

9/29 - Sent another message... getting worried my comic was lost.

 

At this point I'm worried my comic was lost. It was supposedly signed almost 6 months ago and I was never provided a tracking number, is there any way to track directly with CGC without any sort of documentation or tracking number? Just trying to get my comic back.

 

Is this normal grading time for CGC? Do I get some sort of refund on the grading fee's if the grading is supposed to take 5-8 days and it takes 6 months? Are these the times I should expect or are they different for signature series:

https://www.cgccomics.com/services/services.aspx

 

I haven't done this enough times to have any sort of expectations.

 

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

 

 

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Doesn't give me a good feeling. I had to submit my collectible through them at Fan Expo Toronto because they are the only dealer Stan Lee deals with.

 

I am sure I will have a story out of this one. I already had a bad feeling when I talked with their representative at the show.

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4/14 - Was told my book would be returned in 6-8 weeks, this was surprising because the fee's were $275 and I thought that would be a faster service level...

 

If you paid $275 for a single signed book, it should have gone Express (which takes a week to gets graded by CGC) - so turnaround time should have been much, much faster.

 

It kinda looks like Anastasia charged you a fee for one tier, but then submitted your book under a different, slower tier.

 

If you have the invoice number, give CGC a call and they can tell you what's up with your book.

 

 

 

 

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Sounds like there is something going on with Anastasia Collectibles as there are multiple instances reported right here on these boards of books going missing and horrible contact practices.

The CGC boards can't be the only place this is happening, I suggest everyone just avoid them at all costs until we hear otherwise.

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4/14 - Was told my book would be returned in 6-8 weeks, this was surprising because the fee's were $275 and I thought that would be a faster service level...

 

If you paid $275 for a single signed book, it should have gone Express (which takes a week to gets graded by CGC) - so turnaround time should have been much, much faster.

 

It kinda looks like Anastasia charged you a fee for one tier, but then submitted your book under a different, slower tier.

 

If you have the invoice number, give CGC a call and they can tell you what's up with your book.

 

 

 

I'm sure the $275 probably includes the signature fees along with the grading fees. However a ToS 39, even in a 1.0 it is a 4 figure book and would have to go through Express or Walkthrough tier.

 

OP did Anastasia have you fill out any paperwork when sending in the book? There may be a tracking number for CGC there.

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Thanks for the inputs so far. In a way I'm glad my situation isn't unique, sounding like it's more likely is just normal processing delays.

 

In regards to the 275, that includes Stan's signing fee and shipping as well as grading. I don't think I got a breakdown, but that puts the grading fee at probably 100-150. I would have still expected turn around on the order of a week or two not measured in months or years.

 

I guess I will give cgc a call and see if they can do anything on their end.

 

 

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Doesn't give me a good feeling. I had to submit my collectible through them at Fan Expo Toronto because they are the only dealer Stan Lee deals with.

 

I am sure I will have a story out of this one. I already had a bad feeling when I talked with their representative at the show.

 

there were plenty of other people taking subs at fan expo. Doug from comic sketch art was there and gotham central also had a private signing with stan. The competition was also there and you could have used them as well.

 

I talked to the anastasias guys and their prices were insane. I wouldnt deal with them.

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is it true that if you send books to Anastasia for Stan Lee they just put them all on one invoice so you can't look up the status of your books?

 

several people on google+ mentioned they received this response from them.

 

I wonder if this explains things. Maybe Anastasia send in a bunch of books at different service levels, but they all come back at the same time to save on shipping. If be OK with that, just wish there was more transparency so I could know in saving some shipping costs.

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Doesn't give me a good feeling. I had to submit my collectible through them at Fan Expo Toronto because they are the only dealer Stan Lee deals with.

 

I am sure I will have a story out of this one. I already had a bad feeling when I talked with their representative at the show.

 

there were plenty of other people taking subs at fan expo. Doug from comic sketch art was there and gotham central also had a private signing with stan. The competition was also there and you could have used them as well.

 

I talked to the anastasias guys and their prices were insane. I wouldnt deal with them.

 

If you are personally lining up to see him I didn't think that was the case. If you want to leave your book with whoever to meet up with him later you would have been fine. Honestly, had I known I would have skipped the line-up. He wasn't talking to anyone.

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4/14 - Was told my book would be returned in 6-8 weeks, this was surprising because the fee's were $275 and I thought that would be a faster service level...

 

If you paid $275 for a single signed book, it should have gone Express (which takes a week to gets graded by CGC) - so turnaround time should have been much, much faster.

 

It kinda looks like Anastasia charged you a fee for one tier, but then submitted your book under a different, slower tier.

 

If you have the invoice number, give CGC a call and they can tell you what's up with your book.

 

 

 

I'm sure the $275 probably includes the signature fees along with the grading fees. However a ToS 39, even in a 1.0 it is a 4 figure book and would have to go through Express or Walkthrough tier.

 

OP did Anastasia have you fill out any paperwork when sending in the book? There may be a tracking number for CGC there.

 

Yeah, but with Lee's sig fee of $100 + whatever Anastasia is charging on top, the numbers don't add up unless they charged him for an Express submission. Which is why it doesn't make sense they would quote a turnaround time of 6-8 weeks.

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Doesn't give me a good feeling. I had to submit my collectible through them at Fan Expo Toronto because they are the only dealer Stan Lee deals with.

 

I am sure I will have a story out of this one. I already had a bad feeling when I talked with their representative at the show.

 

there were plenty of other people taking subs at fan expo. Doug from comic sketch art was there and gotham central also had a private signing with stan. The competition was also there and you could have used them as well.

 

I talked to the anastasias guys and their prices were insane. I wouldnt deal with them.

 

If you are personally lining up to see him I didn't think that was the case. If you want to leave your book with whoever to meet up with him later you would have been fine. Honestly, had I known I would have skipped the line-up. He wasn't talking to anyone.

 

He never does. I feel bad for stan. his handlers just want as many sigs as possible which leads to sloppy rushed sigs and poor placement. He had 2 free pannels if you wanted to hear his stories or ask him a question haha Gotham Central could have provided you a witness though if you wanted to meet him in person. A VIP pass is also a huge help.

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4/14 - Was told my book would be returned in 6-8 weeks, this was surprising because the fee's were $275 and I thought that would be a faster service level...

 

If you paid $275 for a single signed book, it should have gone Express (which takes a week to gets graded by CGC) - so turnaround time should have been much, much faster.

 

It kinda looks like Anastasia charged you a fee for one tier, but then submitted your book under a different, slower tier.

 

If you have the invoice number, give CGC a call and they can tell you what's up with your book.

 

 

 

I'm sure the $275 probably includes the signature fees along with the grading fees. However a ToS 39, even in a 1.0 it is a 4 figure book and would have to go through Express or Walkthrough tier.

 

OP did Anastasia have you fill out any paperwork when sending in the book? There may be a tracking number for CGC there.

 

Yeah, but with Lee's sig fee of $100 + whatever Anastasia is charging on top, the numbers don't add up unless they charged him for an Express submission. Which is why it doesn't make sense they would quote a turnaround time of 6-8 weeks.

 

something happened with me that was similar with AC. The explanation I got was that while CGC turnaround was shorter with express/fastrack, the facilitator might not actually submit the comic for 3-4 months after the signing. Which makes ZERO sense to me, especially since CGC is usually AT the SAME event where the sig occurred.

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They charged me almost $600 for 5 McFarlane signatures with submission on modern books. Whole process took almost 6 months even though the signing was done 2 weeks after I shipped my books.

 

No apology for the delay, no explanation of the inflated charge, no explanation of why it took so long, nothing.

 

Again, I won't be back. I didn't want to pay the invoice to begin with, but they had my books already. I didn't feel like I had much of a choice.

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